Chapter Text
Kaito Momota. That damned ‘luminary of the stars’ and your sworn rival- and he didn’t even know you yet. He had no idea he had just destroyed everything you had been working towards. But the day you meet him, and you know it’s soon, it would be over for the sucker.
This declaration of war may need some backstory.
(Your Name), the Ultimate…Instinct. It was true, your instincts were like no other, you could do things without even thinking about it and discover that you had been entirely right to do so. If you ever had a gut feeling, you learned early on to listen to it, to put your life on whatever your feelings told you to.
And it always paid off- but you knew you were more than instincts. Sure, playing sports here and there was fun because people were begging to have you on your team. You weren’t the athletic type at all, but they knew they could count on your instincts. And you didn’t mind seeing how far your instincts would carry you, so you’d always happily agree.
But there’s no way to ‘hone’ your instincts. You simply learn to listen to yourself. You had other interests than sitting, waiting for your instincts to drive you one way.
And space had to be the most significant thing you were into. One of your favorite tidbits of information was how backward stars and their temperatures were. If a star was blue, it didn’t imply it was cold (or as cold as something on fire in space could be) rather, it meant it was far hotter than one of the yellow or red ones. Learning that in elementary had been so exciting- what else was space hiding from you?
Going further into school, you were disappointed with the lack of space-themed classes. Did no one else see the value in exploring the great beyond? No matter! You would take things into your own hands and learn everything there was to learn about space.
From online courses while still in in-person school to buying anything that had NASA’s logo on it- you were going to know it all. All with the one ultimate goal of becoming an astronaut, but you could go further. You had already heard about ultimates, and if you were going to dedicate your entire life to space, then you should do your best to become the Ultimate Astronaut. Nothing could stop you- no one could either.
Until Kaito Momota. Until some dude got his friend to essentially break in and he passed some tests with flying colors and became the Ultimate Astronaut. And to put salt in your wide-open wound, someone must have heard about your incredible instincts and you got a letter inviting you to Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Instinct.
Your ultimate goal was crushed, and though it wasn’t spaces fault, you grew bitter thinking about it. About the stars, about astrology, meteors, comets- all of it. And it was his fault.
Interestingly enough, the school offered dorms and gave you ample time to pack up before the new school year started. Once you were moved into your dorm, you were going to find that son of a bitch and…
You sighed, defeated- ‘and’ what…There was nothing to do at this point but accept defeat that someone had beaten you to your own dream. Passion doesn’t seem to pay off very well.
---
Huffing, you set your final box down inside your new dorm. It had been easy work, packing what little stuff you had with your parent's help. They were proud of you, though they could see your discomfort about something , like always, they never pushed you for anything you weren’t going to willingly tell them. They waved you goodbye and drove off. Leaving you to unpack it all, which was exciting at least.
You could hear other people in the halls but didn’t want to greet anyone until your room was at least halfway set up. However, you found that you didn’t really have it in you to move from your spot yet. So, you stood still for a few seconds to see what for, and then dread hit you all at once.
Turning around to see what was wrong with your gut feelings this time around, only to face a tall boy with purple hair. He looked a little surprised before a large grin spread across his face.
“I didn’t even get to knock,” he laughed, “I’m going around introducing myself to everyone, and saw you just got here!”
You nodded, worried about the building suspicion in your gut, “Cool, nice, yeah uh…well my name is (your name), the-”
“Oh, no way! You’re the Ultimate Instinct!” He cut you off.
You blinked in rapid succession before nodding again, “Uh, yeah…how’d you know? I don’t think I’ve done anything to garner any fame.”
He chuckled, “Nonsense! An old friend of mine said you killed it in anything you did, a total natural. Man, that skills gotta be handy.”
“I don’t really see it as a skill,” you shrugged, “I mean, it’s sort of its own thing. Instinct- you don’t train it or get worse, you just listen.”
“Oh, true,” he rubbed the back of his neck, and a few moments of silence passed by. “Oh! I completely forgot about my own introduction!” His smile beamed, but that overwhelming dread started to scream, and you were almost shaking from the intensity of your own, yet-to-be-understood emotions. “I’m Kaito Momota, luminary of the stars! Even crying children adore the Ultimate Astronaut.”
You stared at him in complete and utter hatred, glaring near-literal daggers through his body.
“Get out.”
“Huh-”
“Out. Out of my room, god, you-”
“Where is this coming from?” Confusion was written all over his face, taking a step back as you approached.
“Some luminary you are,” you hissed, slamming the door in his face.
The moment the door closed, you took a deep breath in and sighed with your entire body. You couldn’t do this, there was just no way…
You knew from your letter that these dorms were sorted by class to encourage befriending your classmates. Each dorm was even designed differently so that when meeting someone of a different class, you could have a fresh and interesting environment. However, all of that boiled down to one thing: that damned luminary was in your class.
Maintaining your composure, you opted to now focus on setting up the entirety of your room. You had just a few boxes as you had noted earlier, but it still felt dreadful to think about now. The interaction left a lingering cloud of moodiness to settle in.
Once you got to the box with old journals in it, you sighed again. You looked around for a hiding spot to put these in. There weren’t too many, maybe four in total. But they were all full of space facts and diary entries as you went about learning new things, excitement building thinking about becoming an astronaut, and things along those natures. As bitter as space had made you as you said, it wasn’t space’s fault. So you didn’t have it in you to throw these away.
You looked over at the bed they provided and shrugged, it would be fine for now, and you could find a less cliche spot for them later. Though the same dread as earlier built up again as you thought that, you brushed it off as it being the lingering dread from the introduction and prayed you hadn’t just ignored something deeper than that.
-
Waking up in a new room was something you’d likely take some time to get adjusted to, but waking up to someone knocking at your door wasn’t something you necessarily wanted to get used to.
You grabbed your phone to see when it was you had knocked out, you didn’t even remember doing that. It was about 8 pm, and you had gotten here at 3 and finished your unpacking at 5- so when did you fall asleep…
Regardless, you got up from your bed and opened your door a smidge to make sure you didn’t recognize the face (there is only one face you would know.)
“Hey, I’m Rantaro Amami,” a boy with green hair greeted, “Apparently everyone is gathering in the cafeteria for dinner. Kind of cool, but we noticed we were short one. Did you want to come along?”
“Oh,” you opened the door slightly wider seeing it wasn’t Momota, “Uh, sounds good? Where’s the cafeteria?”
The boy, Rantaro, quietly laughed, “You can take a second to get ready, I’ll walk you there.”
Your face flushed slightly at the sweet offer and you nodded, “Yeah, sure, thank you. I’ll be quick.”
You didn’t do much, a change of shirt and some quick freshening up was all that you deemed necessary. Opening your door to greet him again, he looked up and gave you a smile, putting his phone away.
“Let’s go,” he nodded his head toward the direction he began to lead you in.
You followed him quietly for a moment before realizing, “You didn’t tell me your ultimate.”
“You didn’t tell me your name,” he quipped, chuckling to himself.
“Oh!” You felt a little dumb, “It’s (your name) and I’m the Ultimate Instinct.”
He hummed, “Instinct huh? That’s got to be nice. Ultimate Adventurer”
“Oh, but instinct is nice, mister adventurer?” You teased, “You’ve probably seen places that are beyond gorgeous, yet are impressed by gut feelings.”
He laughed a little, “Fair enough. I have seen some nice spots…” His voice trailed off at the end of his sentence, a solemn look on his face.
“By the sounds of it, you don’t adventure for the sake of it,” you spoke, “You looking for someone?”
His eyes widened a little and he glanced at you, “That instinct of yours…”
“It’s no joke, yeah,” you smiled at him, “You’ll find them. I just know it.”
He seemed relieved by your comfort but only looked at the ground for a moment ahead of himself again. Had you both not reached your destination, he likely would have remained silent for the remainder of the walk.
“Here’s the cafeteria,” he announced, opening the door for you. “I hope you’re social.” He said in a joking manner.
You raised your eyebrow at the comment before looking ahead at the…after doing a head count, fifteen students were in the large room.
“The school’s gathering one class at a time before letting us all intermingle. Some way of letting us know each other before shoving us all together,” Amami shrugged before walking ahead of you.
You looked at him and back to the room for a moment before walking fully inside.
“Hey, are you the last one?” A blonde girl said, “We were wondering who was left!”
She seemed a little cheery, so you waved and nodded, “Yeah, sorry to hold you up.”
“Oh don’t worry,” she approached you, “I’m Kaede Akamatsu, Ultimate Pianist.” She held her hand out for you, “But you can just go ahead and call me Kaede.”
You smiled and took her hand, shaking it, “(Your name), Ultimate Instinct.”
She gasped, “Really? What am I thinking about right now?”
You snorted, slapping a hand over your mouth, “I’m not psychic, Kaede, I just have really strong gut feelings. I always listen, and they’re always right.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” she blushed in her embarrassment but grabbed your hand again, “You seem a little anti-social, is it okay if I introduce you to some people I’ve already met?”
You nodded, “You’re a lifesaver. Maybe you should be the Ultimate Instinct, calling me out like this.”
She giggled before leading you to a table with a boy who didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, eyes hidden under his cap. Next to him was a girl who seemed passed out, and a very concerned…robot…next to her.
“This is Shuichi,” she gestured to the boy, “Come on you two, introductions- go!”
You laughed at her playful attitude and nodded, “(Your name), Ultimate Instinct. You’re a detective, aren’t you?”
He whipped his head up to look into your eyes, “How’d you know?”
“...Ultimate Instinct,” you repeated.
“Oh.”
…
“Well, I’m Shuichi Saihara…Ultimate Detective,” he said the last part begrudgingly, as though he said it and realized it was redundant since you had already figured that out.
Kaede made a gesture to the robot, who sat up and began to speak, “The girl next to me is Miu Iruma, she’s the Ultimate Inventor. I’m K1-B0, or Kiibo, the Ultimate Robot.”
Your eyes beamed a little, “Ultimate Robot? That’s so cool,” you hummed at the end of your sentence and sat down. “I don’t want to sound rude, but can I ask how ‘human’ your programming is?”
He seemed upset nonetheless but seemed to take your word that you had no rude intentions. “I might as well be human, my-”
“He’s not human!” A new voice popped up, startling everyone but you. “He doesn’t even have a dick .”
“How do you know?” You crossed your arms, giving the strange boy a smirk.
“He confessed to it!” He dramatically exclaimed, hands over his mouth.
You turned to fully face him, “No, you drew your own conclusion and ran with it.”
“How would you know?” He pouted, crossing his arms back at you.
“Guys, maybe we-” Kaede tried to intervene.
“It’s in your nature as the Ultimate Supreme Leader to be a little mischievous. Is that wrong?” You accused, trying to swell the pride that using your instincts always gave you.
“Oh wow! Are you a fan? No one else should know that unless I specifically say so,” he said.
“I’m no fan, Ouma,” you grinned at the slight falter of the smile on his face, “I’m just the Ultimate Instinct, (Your Name.) Sorry for the dramatic introduction.” You clapped your hands together.
“Ultimate Instinct?” He looked like he was thinking it over, “Then…what am I thinking of right. Now. ”
“I already tried that,” Kaede laughed.
“Hm?”
“It’s true,” you laughed, “I’m not psychic, it’s all instincts, gut feelings, I run with what I feel.”
He frowned a little, “That’s boring. Why aren’t you psychic?”
“I’m just lame like that,” you sighed dramatically before turning to Kaede, “Amami said everyone here was in our class, right?”
“That’s right,” she nodded, “Oh! So let’s stop hanging around here, and get to know the others.”
You nodded in agreement and stood up, waving to the table and Ouma and followed Kaede.